FAMILIES OF PLANTS 
137 
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of five principal bracts and five rose or flesh-colored flowers with 
strap-shaped corollas. Open only while the sun shines. 
Grassleaf (Ptilo Calais nutans).— A smooth, perennial herb with 
leaves mostly at the base and heads on rather long stems, nodding 
when in the bud. The leaves vary from entire to pinnately lobed 
with long, narrow lobes. The flowering stems are 4 to 12 inches 
high, and the heads are 8- to 20-flowered. The flowers are yellow 
and have strap-shaped corollas. 
Hawksbeard (Crepis) .—Herbs with alternate or nearly all basal 
leaves and small or medium-sized heads of yellow flowers all with 
strap-shaped corollas. The prin¬ 
cipal bracts of the involucre are in 
one series and the pappus consists 
of numerous soft, white bristles. 
Crepis elegams branches consid¬ 
erably and bears several small heads 
on each stem. The basal leaves are 
entire or nearly so and spatula- 
shaped while those on the stem are 
lance-shaped or linear. 
Crepis glauca grows 8 inches to 
2 feet high, is smooth and waxy 
throughout, and has all the leaves 
basal or only 1 or 2 on each stem. 
The leaves are 2 to 6 inches long 
and vary from spatula-shaped to 
egg-shaped and from entire to 
toothed or lobed. The heads are 
from % to 1 inch broad and not 
very numerous. 
Crepis acuminata grows 1 to 3 
feet high. The lower leaves are 6 to 10 inches long, broadly lance¬ 
shaped in outline, but pinnately lobed into narrow lobes and nar¬ 
rowed at the base into a petiole, and at the other end into a taillike 
prolongation about 3 inches long. The involucre consists of 5 to 8 
smooth, bright green, principal bracts and several very small, white- 
hairy outer ones. The heads are 5- to 10-flowered. 
Crepis gracilis is very similar, but is lower and very slender, and 
the leaves are narrower. 
Crepis occidentaHis usually has several stout stems coming from 
a perennial root, but the whole plant is only 4 to 8 inches high. The 
leaves are rather thick, more or less hairy, and toothed or lobed 
Figure 115.—Oysterplant. 
Photograph by A. R. 
Violet-purple. 
Sweetser. 
